By Coralie Ganivet
The controversy has been going on for several days on social networks. First invited to participate in the Salon du livre du Prix Bayeux-Calvados-Normandie for war correspondents – the 27th edition of which is held from October 5 to 11, 2020 – the independent Canadian journalist, Judi Rever , has finally been unscheduled.
Je peux confirmer que suite à des pressions externes je ne suis plus invitée à Bayeux et les organisateurs du @PrixBayeux ne défendent pas la liberté de la presse. https://t.co/AeuNm4yt8y
— Judi Rever (@JudiRever) October 3, 2020
“Do not take the risk of a fight”
A decision assumed by the organization of the festival, which justifies its decision because of the controversy aroused by the publication of his book “Rwanda, the praise of blood” .
“We launched the invitation before his book was released in France. When we saw the controversy it triggered, we said to ourselves that it was not a good idea for her to participate in the Book Fair. As an organizer, we couldn’t afford to take the risk that the event would end in a fist fight.”
Aurélie Viel
Responsible for organizing the Bayeux War Correspondents Prize
“The Prize which pays tribute to journalists censures their investigative work”
A justification not accepted by the editor of the journalist, Max Milo. In a press release, Max Milo writes all their incomprehension:
We are surprised that such an event, which pays tribute to journalists exercising their profession in perilous conditions to allow access to free information, censors the investigative work of Judi Rever. […] To muzzle his work is to play the game of a dictator. It is also abandoning a journalist who has suffered numerous death threats and is still risking her life. It is to surrender to totalitarianism.
Jean-Charles Gerard
Editor, Max Milo
Max Milo vient d’apprendre l’éviction de @JudiRever, @PrixBayeux. Nous sommes surpris qu’un tel événement qui rend hommage aux journalistes exerçant leur métier dans des conditions périlleuses pour permettre d’accéder à une information libre, censure le travail de Judi Rever. pic.twitter.com/SNqzrcvbcV
— Max Milo éditions (@MaxMiloEditions) October 5, 2020
Pressure exerted?
For the journalist herself, the festival would have yielded to “external pressures” – the publisher talks “of pressure from several journalists present in Bayeux” – which the organizers are defending, who also refuse to take a position in the debate surrounding the publication of this work.
Why is the book so debated?
This is the crux of the matter. In “Rwanda, praise of blood”, Judi Rever, who according to his editor has “investigated at the risk of his life for more than 20 years on the atrocities committed in Rwanda”, deciphers the genocide in all its complexity based on “hundreds of testimonies […] and on documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda”.
Where it is controversial is that it evokes the responsibility of Paul Kagame , president of Rwanda , and the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) in the outbreak of the genocide. She is thus accused of negationism and threatened for the criticisms she emits of the Rwandan authorities.
“When it comes to Rwanda or Gaza, we can see to what extent this crystallizes tensions,” notes the organization of the Prize.
The organization had not read the book in question
So why did you first choose to invite the journalist before going back? Why not assume if she knew the sensitive subject? Visibly embarrassed, the organization admits not having read the book before launching the invitation… “It had not yet been released in France at that time. The programming has been built in a somewhat special way this year because of the health crisis. It wouldn’t have happened like this another year… ”